Spoilers for the season 2 premiere of Mayfair Witches
Mayfair Witches returns with its second season, and if it's not clear enough from the premiere title or Anne Rice's second book in the series the show is based on, this season is all about Lasher. A primary antagonist in season 1, Lasher (Jack Huston) makes a pivotal decision in the finale to give up his power to Rowan in exchange for a body. Thus, Rowan fulfills the prophecy of the 13th witch, literally becoming a "doorway" for Lasher's birth into the real world.
The second season begins by establishing and exploring Rowan's relationship with the newly embodied Lasher. Rowan's life has become as stressful as any new mother's, complicated by the fact she's birthed something she still doesn't understand at all. Lasher grows at a rapid pace—we're talking like five times as fast as Renesmee.
His accelerated growth leads him to sprout up from child to teenager and finally full-grown adult within a matter of days. There's one particularly disturbing scene in which a young Lasher stands in front of Rowan's bed and starts yanking out his baby teeth while laughing maniacally.
No one knows why Lasher was willing to give up his power in exchange for a body, and he's unwilling to share his secrets. Then there's the fact that Lasher is kind of obsessed with the Mayfair women and Rowan in particular. At one point, he tries to kiss her, and Rowan, understandably, freaks out. She sees him as his son, but Lasher doesn't see Rowan as his mother.
Even though he no longer has magical abilities, Mayfair Witches establishes that he's still very much a threat, especially to Mayfair women. A teenaged Lasher sneaks out of the Mayfair manor to a party where he meets a young woman. And sniffs her. There's a lot of sniffing involved. The next time we see her, she's a corpse in Lasher's arms. The girl is revealed to be another Mayfair named Lucy, and Rowan chooses to dispose of her body at the bottom of a lake rather than contact the police.
Rowan's decision to hide Lucy's body (though, at this point, she doesn't know she's a Mayfair) feels like it will be integral to this season. Demon or not, Rowan is operating with some maternal instinct toward Lasher. Her decision to put Lasher before Lucy's life speaks to the dark direction she might take this season and further sets up the conflict between her and one of this season's new characters, a mind-reading witch named Moira Mayfair (Alyssa Jirrels), sister of Tessa Mayfair.
Quick season 1 refresher: After Rowan tried to get rid of Lasher, Tessa was chosen as his new Mayfair partner. But when Tessa was captured by witch hunters, Lasher abandoned her. Now Moira wants to understand the truth of what happened to her sister and she knows Lasher was involved. Getting to him won't be easy, as there are plenty of Mayfair witches ready to protect Lasher, and Moira accuses them of being power-hungry. She might not be wrong about that.
Moira isn't the only character eager to get her hands on Lasher. Ciprien (Tongayi Chirisa) also wants to stop him and "save" Rowan, though she might long passed that at this point. Separated from the clandestine organization the Talamasca, Cip starts out this season alone with few allies. He fears that the Talamasca, specifically its leader Albrecht (Dennis Boutsikaris), is prepared to wipe his memories concerning Lasher and everything he knows. As a backup plan, Cip leaves a message for himself in a book (Ciprien has the ability to see into an object's past through touch) and delivers it to the only person he trusts, his friend and fellow Talamasca member Arjuna.
The Talamasca do catch up to Cip at a motel, using some kind of magic purple dust to knock him out, but they don't take his memories. In fact, Albrecht informs Cip that the organization's seniority is quite impressed with him and has no intention of wiping his mind. Instead, they want to assign him a new, high-profile mission: capturing Lasher. Previously, the Talamasca had no real interest in Lasher, but now that he has a body they fear the impact he could have on the supernatural world.
They believe Moira, a Mayfair witch with a vendetta against Lasher, might be the perfect person to use to get to him and want Cip to turn her. With Lasher protected by Rowan and inside the Mayfair house, there's no easy way for a non-Mayfair to get past the various charms and protective spells. Their best chance is to turn a Mayfair into a double agent, and Moira is the perfect candidate.
Odds & Ends
- We only briefly meet Ben Feldman's character, a geneticist named Sam Larkin, who happens to be Rowan's ex. She wants his help testing Lasher's DNA.
- Dolly Jean acts suspiciously in this episode, assuring Lasher that keeping certain things from Rowan is okay. Does she have a secret agenda?
- Cortland will play a big part in season 2, but for the moment, he's still a stone statue that Rowan has stashed away somewhere. He appears to be trapped in a mental prison of sorts. At the end of season 1, Rowan learns the truth about Cortland, that he raped her mother, Deirdre, and is her biological father, meaning Josephine Mayfair is her half-sister.